page_title: Loch Castle (Eichhofen)
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Loch Castle (Eichhofen) / Description
caption_attribution_description: Burg Loch, Mauer des Wohntrakts in der Höhle
context_page_description: Loch Castle is a protected ruin in the municipality of Loch in the Bavarian market borough of Nittendorf. It is also the symbol of Eichhofen, a village within the borough.
  Loch is a rare example of a cave castle in Bavaria; only in Stein an der Traun in Upper Bavaria is there another surviving example of this type of fortification.
context_section_description: Loch Castle consists of two caves sealed by stone walls. These caves are connected to a labyrinth of smaller rooms in the cave system. The largest space, with a floor area of 12.5 x 7 metres, was used as a residential area and was panelled with wood. It was heated by a fireplace that may still be seen today. The ceiling of this room has partly collapsed since the castle was abandoned, leaving it open to the surface. As a result, it may be entered from both the downhill and uphill sides. There are still brick walls and door spaces in this room. The cave is two storeys high, but the upper floor only has a small chamber. In addition other buildings were built outside the cave, against the rock face. The area around the cave was surrounded by a high curtain wall and protected by a zwinger.
  The round bergfried of French design was placed immediately in front of the cave and is the only building that has survived intact. It is visible from a long way off. The roughly 22-metre-high tower is made of rusticated ashlar and has two-metre-thick walls at the base, reducing to 50 centimetres thickness by the 4th storey. Judging by its windows and garderobe (of which some of the medieval wooden elements have survived), it was designed as a relatively comfortable residence. Access was via an elevated entrance. It was restored in 1989.
caption: Wall of the residential wing of the cave (1990)
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS2 Macintosh", "Image DateTime": "2008:03:27 10:23:48", "Image ExifOffset": "164", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "302", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5631", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1525", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1033"}